Saturday, August 8, 2015

It’s not too late to begin feeding hummingbirds. I wait all year for my
summertime hummingbird viewing. Males, footloose and fancy free all summer, are
seriously bulking up in preparation to head south. Females, finally off the
nest, are roaming freely too. And baby hummers, checking everything and learning where the good food is to be found, are
locking feeder locations away in their brain. Make sure your feeders are clean
and refilled with fresh nectar every couple of days.

From July to late fall, territorial claims can be
overlooked, and competition at feeders increases greatly. Hummers forage for
food 20% of their time and perch about 80% of their life. In order to conserve
their strength, sometimes they’ll guard a particularly tasty food source like
a hummingbird feeder or flowering bush. This might result in air fights between
hummingbirds or any birds that get in the way of their meal. It's also not unusual for more mature hummingbirds to
use physical rebukes to punish immature hummingbirds. It is okay to put up a
couple feeders at different locations of the yard to relieve the stresses of
late summer feeding.

A hummingbird actually gains 25 – 40% extra body-weight to
have enough fuel to migrate thousands of miles south. You will notice them
getting a fresh set of feathers and fatter and fatter along the belly, back,
and throat. The males first get the urge to fly south followed by the females
and then the juvenile hummers. Most Ruby-throated Hummingbirds winter in
southern Mexico, Central America, South America, and the West Indies. A few
remain along the Gulf coast and on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.